The Incompatibility of Classical Relativity and Maxwell's Equations

2/24/2014

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In the middle of the nineteenth century, it has been known
for quite some time that electricity can be used make a magnet and that magnet
can be used to make electricity. The man who made the first color photograph,
James Clark Maxwell unified everything known about magnetism and electricity in
four brilliant equations. These equations described that an electromagnetic
wave would travel through empty space with exactly the same speed of light. In
fact, this wave was light. According to Maxwell light was an electromagnetic
wave that move through empty space with the speed of one hundred and eighty six
thousand miles per second, but from the viewpoint of classical relativity the
question logically arises, Relative to what?

The
equations seemed to say that the light moves at one hundred and eighty six
thousand miles per second relative to everything. This was the first conflict (Read the Three Conflicts here) of physics at that time when classical physics and Maxwell’s equations were
moving apart. According to Maxwell’s equations, light always travels with the
speed of “c” and that is one hundred and eighty six thousand miles per second. According
to classical physics there were no absolute velocities. Both these theories and
equations have revolutionized the physics of that time and everyone was well
aware of that, but this conflict made physicists to come up with new ideas. The
very groundwork of physics was in crisis and a new theory was require for
better understanding.

Albert
Einstein was the one who gave the clear idea about the speed of light. He
presented his theory of Special relativity and it helped physicists in
understanding the true nature of the speed of light. Einstein accepted that
these two theories had changed the course of science in the past. He also
accepted the idea of relative motion. He said both moving and stationary
observers will go through the same laws of physics always. As the speed of
light is also the law of physics so Einstein postulated that all observers will
observe the same speed of light regardless of the state of their motion. Speed
can be described as a measurement of distance in a given time and to agree on
the speed of light different observers might have to disagree about time and
distance. In special relativity the term time was defined in a wonderful way
and that is, time is not same everywhere and the factor of time was one which
balanced understanding of the speed of light for different observers. Over the
last 100 hundred years, countless experiments show without any doubt that it is
the time that slows down when an observer or any object is in motion and speed
of light always remains the same. Time and length will be measured differently
in different inertial frames, time will dilated and length will be contracted.

(If you find any error or
miscalculation in this article then please feel free to share in comment and if
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